I, of all people, was nominated for BASW by the fine folks at McSweeney's. As was Stephen King for his opus on the World Series and several others who did sports work. I'm a little surprised that King's piece didn't make the cut because it was very, very good.

Unless they missed the deadline to enter or something. So I'm a little curious now.

If Chasing Jose is one of the best our business produced, we're all in trouble. I like Jordan a lot but that piece was a "fuck you Jose" because Jordan was pissed he couldn't pin Jose down for an interview. I used it as one of my discussion pieces in class last year and they were all pretty much disgusted that it qualified as journalism.

I also thought the piece was a little too old to be included but clearly I'm wrong there.

Anyone looking for inspiration should plan on picking up a copy. They always do a good job of widening the scope of what "sports writing" is and can be. In most cases, sports has little to do with what makes the stories great.

At least one of these authors is an oblivious prima donna and a world-class overwriter who should drop to his knees every night and thank the sweet Lord he has editors to save him from himself. And that's all I'll say about it.

(And, no, I didn't produce anything this year that could even remotely be considered sportswriting. When someone assembles The Best American Budget and Spreadsheet Writing 2011, however, I'm a shoo-in ... but anyone can write fiction.)